Spamhaus has received a reprieve in the current messy legal battle in which it has been forced to defend itself against a US marketing company, e360 Insight.

The company sued Spamhaus in the US after it was named on a list of spammers, and won after the British company did not defeng itself, claiming the court had no jurisdiction over its operations.

After the shock victory, e360 Insight demanded that Icann and Spamhaus' registry Tucows suspend the group's domain name. Icann refused, saying it did not have the power to make such a move, and now US District Judge Charles Kocoras has also ruled in favour of Spamhaus.

It rejected e360 Insight's demand saying it was "too broad to be warranted in this case" and that suspending the domain name would "cut off all lawful online activities of Spamhaus, not just those that are in contravention" of the court's earlier order.

He also said the requested action did not "correspond to the gravity of the offending conduct".

However Spamhaus is not taking any chances, and will continue to fight the earlier ruling, to prove that US courts have no jurisdiction over its operations.

Although this is not the first time an alleged spammer has tried to sue the voluntary anti-spam organisation, in the past it has ignored such threat because US courts have jurisdiction over the British company.